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I have learned something this week-I'm more flexible and stronger than I thought.

Our daughter and son-in-law were taking a few days off and I agreed to watch Dylan. Grandma Robin was going to watch Aidan.

You see, with the RA, the CRPS and a broken rib-I was pretty darn sure I would not be able to do both kids myself. Thank goodness my son and daughter-in-law to be were able to help. My daughter-in-law works at home 3 days a week. My son has his days off mid-week. So I at least had a couple of hands to help with most of the lifting.

Dylan walks, talks and can pretty much feed himself-Aidan is doing pretty good for a 1 year old, but I knew I sometimes don't do to well for a 51-year-old.

After I hosted a family meal Sunday night, my daughter, son-in-law took Aidan to his destination. My husband was home, so he had his ever-adoring grandson for the evening while I cleaned up the feast.

Dylan went to sleep a little after 10 and woke up at 5 a.m.! Egads-since closing my day care (and a couple of early flights for a vacation and a speaking engagement) I was unaware that 5 a.m. was still part of the 24 hour day!

Luckily my husband brought him and Pop-Pop bear to our room and he fell back asleep until 7:15.

After breakfast, I leashed up Sunshine and took Dylan by the hand and went for the first part of my daily walk. We took 15 minutes to go ½ mile. Toddlers love to check out every color of car, flower and tree. It was a lot of fun to see things through Dylan's eyes.

After putting Sunshine in the house, I grabbed Dylan's stroller and took him out for an hour of fast paced walking. However, thinking ahead (I needed him to take a nap)-when returned to our block I took him out of the stroller and had him push it around the block.

We came home in time for lunch. Another thing about toddlers I had long since forgotten: THEY LIKE TO GRAZE. This works for me, I still graze during the day as well. So Dylan had a bite of lunch here and there and everywhere.

Aunt Sam came down and helped get this wiggly body into a dry diaper. Ever try changing a diaper on a moving object with a broken rib??? Trust me, there is much pain involved.

After reading half of "Look at the Size of that Long-Legged Ploot"-my grandson took a 2 hour nap.

We made homemade play doh when he woke up and played with that for an hour.

About that point, I really needed to get dinner started and Dylan really wanted to watch "Cars", his favorite movie. This sounded like a plan. He and Pop-pop got into my La-Z-Boy and watched the movie while I made the evening fare.

He fell asleep at 10 and woke up at 7:30. Yeah!

Tuesday, we did the breakfast and power walking excursion again. Adam was home and helped me load Dylan into the car and go to Costco for a few items. The fun part for the little one was trying some of the samples. From there, we took him to Arby's for lunch and time in the play area outside. There was a little girl there so while Adam ate and I had a diet coke, Dylan exerted even more energy. Didn't eat a drop. We took home the meal. Adam changed his diaper and I read the rest of the book from the day before and he slept for a bit over an hour.

More time with the play doh and then the "Cars" and dinner prep thing happened.

When my husband got home he took his turn with his devoted grandson.

Wednesday, we still did our walking, observing and reading, but we also packed up the suitcase for Dylan's eventual departure. My sister came over to show us my parent's new puppy. Dylan and Sunshine enjoyed that, the cats did NOT.

Then we went to go meet my parents at the local "Corner Bakery" for lunch. After that, I read Dylan his final "Book of Ree" excerpt and he napped until his parents came.

Total miles walked: 19.3Total mini-meals prepared: 17Total number of anti-inflammatories taken by grandma: (here's the strength part) 2Time spent with Dylan: Priceless

Love it! I know what you mean about toddlers taking forever on a walk. I take Jazelle to see her poppa at his school and the walk from our house across the parking lot to the school takes sometimes half an hour. Wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m going to dig up my recipe for chocolate play doh. It’s really fun. Love that you make your own. Sometimes that stuff ends up in their mouths so homemade is better.

We have Jazelle and her mom living in our cottage right now so we see her for dinner and play time all the time. So much fun!